Java EE 8 Proposed Final Draft is here

Java EE 8 is one step closer to reality. The drafts of the Java EE 8 Platform and Web Profile specification docs that should be submitted to the JCP for Proposed Final Draft have been published. Read on to find out what’s new.

Linda DeMichiel, Specification Lead for the Java EE Platform, announced in a message on the new platform javaee.groups.io that the drafts of the Java EE 8 Platform and Web Profile specification documents that they plan to submit to the JCP for Proposed Final Draft have been uploaded to the project documents area.

She explained that the changes are “quite minimal” — mostly to sync with updates in the Java Security API— and revealed that they are “not anticipating much further in the way of updates to the Platform spec, other than what might be needed to reflect any further updates to Java EE Security.”

Changes in Java EE 8

“Java EE 8 introduces the JSON Binding API (JSON-B) for mapping between JSON text and Java objects, building on the JSON Processing API (JSON-P) introduced in Java EE 7,” according to the draft. “The JSON Processing API itself is updated to reflect additional JSON standards. Servlet undergoes major enhancement with the addition of support for the new HTTP/2 protocol. JAX-RS adds support for server-sent events and, building on concurrency facilities added in Java SE 8, a reactive client API. The new Java EE Security API provides enhanced support for authentication and authorization in web modules, and also introduces APIs for access to identity stores. The Bean Validation facility is updated to reflect enhancements made in Java SE 8 and to extend the range of validated objects. While the focus of CDI in this release is to extend its scope beyond Java EE with the introduction of bootstrapping API, CDI also includes enhancements for event processing and alignment on Java SE features.”

Plans for future versions

The draft also includes the plans for future versions of this specification.

Java EE SPI

“Many of the APIs that make up the Java EE platform include an SPI layer that allows service providers or other system level components to be plugged in. This specification does not describe the execution environment for all such service providers, nor the packaging and deployment requirements for all service providers. However, the Java EE Connector Architecture does define the requirements for certain types of service providers called resource adapters, and the Java Authorization Contract for Containers defines requirements for security service providers. Future versions of this specification will more fully define the Java EE SPI.”